Gambling destroys lives, tears apart families, hurts children.
Addiction grips millions. With online gambling, the situation is worse than ever.
Yet has gambling been given a bad rap? Here, some good things about gambling.

Love gamble, love tangle
I've got all that I can handle
LoveLove Gamble

I'm used to thinking of gambling as horrible. Every day I hear stories of people destroying their lives, and the well-being of their families, because they can't stop gambling. Everything goes. A woman speaks from her prison cell: she turned to robbing banks to pay for her addiction. She doesn't excuse herself. But she couldn't help herself. She wanted to be arrested. Despair.

I've been thinking about gambling differently this past while. Not "pure gambling" (lottery tickets, casinos, online gambling). But gambling as an essential feature of healthy hopeful living that takes us beyond the routine.

Good things about gambling: the gambling impetus that takes us beyond where we are.

My partner and I are building a business. Now, that's a gamble - with our time, our lives. I'm also building this site - Elsa's Creativity Emporium. Another huge gamble with time, energy, creativity. Columbus sailed for America. His gamble: that he would end up in the Far East. He didn't get what he was aiming for - but the gamble paid off for the Europeans.

More good things about gambling. Farmers plant seeds. The gamble: that the season will be good. Designers design. The gamble: that the design will find a market.

People fall in love, and decide to try to make a live with that person - one of the biggest gambles in life.

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And yet the horror stories are real. People wearing diapers at slop machines so they don't have to take time off to relieve themselves. People losing everything, committing suicide.

We had a kid mowing the lawn. Ssince age 8, he'd been doing all he could to get money into the family. His father worked Monday to Friday. Weekends he gambled. His parents had been on the edge of divorce most of his childhood. His mother understood the gambling impulse, controlled it for the sake of the children - but didn't earn enough to pay the bills.

Not much of a childhood for the kids.

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Here: 3 big questions:

* Why the massive destructive power of the gambling impulse?

* Can we have the gain without the pain?

* How do we stack the odds in our favor?

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One extra question:

* How good are the good things about gambling?

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Plus, a quick look at one of the conradictions in our nature.

Many people want a predictable salary, steady dependable pay. No gambling, please. So and so much an hour. Anything else feels wrong, out of control, dangerous. How can anyone live like that, they shudder and recoil. They don't want to gamble with work time.

Contradiction. At the same time, many of the same people have a hugely developed urge, even an overwhelming urge, to gamble. Bingo! - and there goes the afternoon, the evening, the weekend. Somehow that gambling feels fine. Many are happy to be hooked, to have a sizable chunk of that steadily earned income drained by the gambling. So often, I see people ahead of me in line - at the drug store, the grocery store, the gas station - buying one lottery ticket afer another. Often they're buying the cheapest toilet paper available - $1.99 for 8 rolls - and putting $20 into tiny scraps of paper.

An observation. An adequate steady hourly wage isn't the norm - not in history and not worldwide. Most of the world - past and present, animal as well as human - lives "on a gamble." And throughout the world, people gamble - play games of chance.

Even birds do it!

And now, the questions, starting with, what are all the good things about gambling?

GOOD THINGS ABOUT GAMBLING * PROS AND CONS OF GAMBLING *
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF GAMBLING * WHY PEOPLE GAMBLE * PSYCHOLOGY GAMBLING ADDICTION. HEALTHY REASONS WHY PEOPLE GAMBLE: LOVE OF A PERSON, A PROJECT, A HOPE.
GOOD THINGS ABOUT GAMBLING: TAKING ON
GOOD DARES, SO THAT
RISK MANAGEMENT LONGTERM INDICATES BENEFITS FROM GAMBLING.

Has Gambling Gotten a Bad Rap? Here, Good Things About Gambling,
Pros And Cons Of Gambling, Why People Gamble,
plus Negative Effects Of Gambling, Psychology of Gambling Addiction.

The Idea
Emporium - on
Good Things about Gambling

Good things abut gambling? Life is a gamble. My building this site is a gamble.
When the boat people left VietNam it was a gamble. It didn't always pay off. Many died.
But the gamble was: something better is out there.
So this is a celebration of all the gamblers before me and around me,
moving toward something better they are sure is out there.

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The Idea
Emporium - with more on
Good Things about Gambling

More good things about gambling? What about something about a gamble that didn't pay off?

After World War II, masses of Europeans emigrated to Canada and the States.
Their gamble: things would be better. Many went back, at least to visit, and found a rebuilt Europe -
prosperity beyond anything they would have thought possible.
For some, the gamble still paid off: they came to love their new homes. Others lived homesick, or returned home.

Good things about gambling don't mean every gamble turns out well. Or it wouldn't be a gamble.
To take a gamble means we might lose. The best we can do is weigh the odds, to the best of our knowledge.

But unlike gambling addiction, there is hope of achievement, not just winning money, a jackpot .

When I think of good things abut gambling, I realize - this is something I'm still thinking about.

GOOD THINGS ABOUT GAMBLING: SOMEONE RESCUES A CHILD. THEY GAMBLE THEY CAN DO IT.
GOOD THINGS ABOUT GAMBLING. WE TRY AND TRY AGAIN INSTEAD OF GIVING UP.
WE GAMBLE WE WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE IT.
GOOD THINGS ABOUT GAMBLING: THESE CONNECT WITH HOPE.

HERE: GOOD THINGS ABOUT GAMBLING * PROS AND CONS OF GAMBLING *
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF GAMBLING * WHY PEOPLE GAMBLE * PSYCHOLOGY GAMBLING ADDICTION. HEALTHY REASONS WHY PEOPLE GAMBLE: LOVE OF A PERSON, A PROJECT, A HOPE.
GOOD THINGS ABOUT GAMBLING: TAKING ON
GOOD DARES, SO THAT
RISK MANAGEMENT LONGTERM INDICATES BENEFITS FROM GAMBLING.